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March 18, 2011

Royal Tower set to begin 'very soon'

[PHNOM PENH POST]

WORK on the long-awaited Royal Tower is set to begin “very soon”,
according to Royal Group Chairman Kith Meng, after the
multi-million-dollar project was approved by the Council for the
Development of Cambodia.

The tower – planned to be 36-storeys
high and located at the corners of Monivong and Russian Federation
Boulevards in Phnom Penh – was part of US$245-million worth of schemes
approved by the government in the first two months of this year,
according to the CDC.

The project received formal approval last
month and has total fixed assets of $90 million behind it, a list
obtained by The Post stated.

It was described as “development of
trade and retail centre, business centres, conference and exhibition
centres as well as service suites and hotels”.

Construction is slated to be completed by mid-2013, according to information displayed on the Royal Group’s website yesterday.

When quizzed about the scheme yesterday, Royal Group Chairman Kith Meng commented only to say “it will begin very soon”.

Media
reports in October said the conglomerate was still in negotiations with
investors in order to complete funding for the project.

The
$245.4 million worth of projects approved by the CDC in January and
February was a large rise on the $89.6 million approved in the same
period of 2010.

Yorn Heng, the director for the Department of
Assessment and Investment Projects at CDC, said yesterday: “We hope
that investment money will continue growing in the future because we are
recovering from the global economic crisis that affected Cambodia’s
economic situation last year.”

Of the 12 projects approved in the first two months, seven schemes worth $25 million were related to the textile industry.

The
schemes were backed by investors from Hong Kong, the United States,
Taiwan and Korea. Van Sou Ieng, president of Garment Manufactures
Association in Cambodia, said that the sector has been encouraged by the
relaxation of taxes on European garment imports.

A rubber
processing factory was also approved along with a $102 million scheme
from Tower Master (Cambodia) Company Limited, which develops and
maintains telecommunication towers in the Kingdom.

A $17 million
Noth Korean project from Mansudae New Tech Corp Ltd, described only as a
“panorama house” was also approved in January.